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Posted by Dr. Phil on March 27, 2002 at 17:05:37:
In Reply to: great stuff doc....more posted by Dean Alessandrini on March 27, 2002 at 07:23:31:
I had gotten the data about the 76F from a chelonian afficionado. He'd gotten it from some paper on the matter from what I recall. Of course, I would assume that this stable temp thing is only valid at the deeper end of burrows, as it makes perfect sense to imagine it would be subjected to much more fluctuation neerer the entrance, especially in winter.
It boggles the mind that in this day and age no one has yet to find a single confirmed nest of this largest of all North American colubrids, unless I'm not aware that this has been done already. From your statement I assume it hasn't happened yet.
The reason might be that they lay in side chambers of the burrows and then proceed to cover up the eggs with sand/dirt much like king cobras do with leaf litter. Perhaps it might even be the tortoises themselves that fill in the nest site after finding it "contaminated" with snake eggs, thus blocking it off from the inquisitive eye of the remote cameras. As for the eggshell fragments, most tortoise species are well known for their habit of eagerly consuming all manner of organic calcium whenever given the chance, such as bone fragments in dried carnivore dung. So it wouldn't be surprising if any shell fragment would quickly be consumed as soon as it was spotted, as they consist of almost pure calcium, hence the possible relative scarcity of such laying site evidence. Oh well, it's just theorizing!
If I can manage to find the data on tortoise burrow temps I'll get back with it....
Dr. Phil
